Madhav Nepal’s hard landing

The more transparent the prosecution process, the greater will be its legitimacy.

Ever since the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed a corruption case at the Special Court against Madhav Kumar Nepal, former prime minister and current chair of CPN (Unified Socialist), there has been much speculation. Under a direct proposal of then Prime Minister Nepal, the Cabinet in 2010 had allowed a private company to purchase land whose area exceeded the legal ceiling many times over. Within a month, the Cabinet again allowed the company, Patanjali Yogpeeth and Ayurveda Company Nepal, to illegally sell a chunk of the land at an inflated price. The whole process smacked of a plot to increase the company’s profits. Nearly 15 years later, a case has been lodged against Nepal. Since the restoration of democracy in 1990, this is the first time that the country’s constitutional anti-graft body has filed a case against a former head of government. Earlier, all such ‘policy decisions’ of the prime minister-led Cabinet were exempted from oversight. According to the CIAA Act, “the commission will not conduct any investigation, inquiry, or take any action in relation to any policy decision collectively made by the council of ministers or any of its committees.”